One Year Since Oct 7

I attended a vigil in Amherst Common to mark one year since the genocide in Gaza began. I prefer noisy angry protests to vigils, so I was in two minds whether to go, especially since I didn't know anyone else who was going. But, I decided to go since it was Oct. 7, and I am glad I did. I apprecaited the more woo-woo stuff too, like when they distributed flowers and ask us to speak/project our feelings into them and give them to someone else. There were a number of good speakers, but the one that spoke to close the vigil really chimed with me. She said we know that flowers and vigils will not stop the bombs, but they will create a sense of togetherness and bonding that will sustain us. Because the least we can do is to make sure that the genocide in Gaza doesn't harden our hearts to the suffering of others, does't dehumanize us. None of the us are the same person we were one year ago, and we should mourn our old selves and celebrate our new selves (some of this my interpretration of her words, and not a direct paraphrasal). Today was also the first time I wore my keffiyeh in a non-protest setting (on the bus to uni) and went from feeling a sense of trepidation at the possibility of being confronted by a Zionist, tobarely being aware that I had it on on the bus back. I have decided to wear it regularly as a  light scarf until the weather demands a heavier scarf. I also went back to read my previous blog posts about Palestine, and it was intersting to revisit my emotinal trajectory through this genocide. The despair and nervousness about attending a protest at the beginning, feeling fortified by attending protests, finding the protests peformative after a while and feeling frustrated at not being willing to engage in direct action, coming to terms with said dissatisfaction; predicting that Rafah would be thing that would either obliterate Palestine or be the final straw that prompts the West to put a leash on Israel. Not remembering that I had written that until today. I haven't written about Lebanon, and the disckening realisation that Western contempt is not restricted to Palestinainas, but extends to all Arabs. But, that's a blog for another day or for another blogger who is more articulate and/or is better informed about this than I am.